Digital Tools That Make Wedding Planning Easier

Planning a wedding is a simple task – said no bride (or groom) ever! No matter your personality type or organizational prowess, weddings are a surefire stressor. They are time-consuming, and one of those occasions in which the magic trifecta comes into play — relationships, family dynamics, and finances. So hopefully some of these tips will help reduce some of those urges to strangle your MOH, fiancée, or future mother-in-law!

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1. Set up a separate email.

Just like you should have a work, personal, and junk email account set up (for organization and preventing hacks), you should set up a new one for wedding-related items. This way it's easier to organize, track, and search through your wedding-related stuff.

OneNote Wedding Planner

Rachel Rothman

2. Use a digital hub.

I love Microsoft's suite of online productivity tools (Office 365 cloud services) because I can use them on all of my devices — PC, Mac, iPhone, you name it! All apps are accessible from a web browser when I'm on the go or someone else's laptop, and full disclosure: I like to geek out in Excel and OneNote. But my fiancée is more of an Evernote/Google Drive spreadsheeter, so we've found a happy balance amongst them for various tasks. You want to pick an application suite you are comfortable with, but make sure it is easily accessible wherever you are, and easily shareable and editable by the key stakeholders in your wedding.

3. Create an online registry.

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People will start asking where you're registered immediately. So my advice: Register as soon as you can on the likely suspects: Bloomingdales, Williams Sonoma, Michael C. Fina, etc. with a few items, even if you don't know you for sure want them. Since you're not as lucky as I am to have an arsenal of the top experts in every consumer product category as your close friends, here is a link to our Kitchen Lab Director's post on awesome registry gifts.

SquareSpace Website

Rachel Rothman

4. …And a wedding website.

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It's nice to get your registry info up on the Knot so friends and loved ones can get something you selected, and you can build out your page on the site to include more information on you as a couple, the wedding details, and more. If you're feeling adventurous and looking for a slightly less cookie-cutter look to your details, try a more general free website creator like Squarespace or Weebly, which have great base templates that you can modify. For a small fee, you can purchase a custom URL to link to (like BradLovesAngelina.com). If you want a more templated wedding framework, Appy Couple offers specific bridal collections to work from, but pricing starts at $35.

5. Manage your guest list with spreadsheets.

Unfortunately, there is no digital tool to tell you who makes the cut, but there are ways to help streamline the information gathering, manipulating, and organizing. Use Postable to collect the latest mailing addresses from your friends, and simultaneously see who they consider to be a "significant" partner. Another trick is to nab the home addresses from individuals who send you engagement gifts — it's usually included on the gift receipt.

6. Find online inspiration.

Of course Instagram and Pinterest are great for getting visual ideas (I keep my boards private!), but if you're looking for more details on what vendors to pair with, check out Carats and Cake. It's a wedding platform that helps connect couples to top vendors and venues. I find the interface and curation to best out the overwhelming multitude of reviews on the WeddingWire. The latter is helpful for a comprehensive set of wedding planning tools — including a wedding seat chart design tool.

If you're looking for more wedding (or just tech) tips and tricks, follow me @GHGadgetGirl or shoot me a question!

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